1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the manufacture of gaseous mixtures comprising H.sub.2 and CO, e.g., synthesis gas, fuel gas, and reducing gas by the partial oxidation of pumpable slurries of solid carbonaceous fuels in a liquid carrier or liquid or gaeous hydrocarbon fuel. In one of its more specific aspects, the present invention relates to an improved burner for such gas manufacture.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Annulus-type burners have been employed for introducing liquid hydrocarbonaceous fuels into a partial oxidation gas generator. For example, coassigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,528,930 shows a single annulus burner, and coassigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,758,037 and 3,847,564 show double annulus burners. However, in such burners, only one pair of reactant feedstreams are mixed downstream from the burner face, and missing are the high turndown, pre-mix, and soot-blowing or de-slagging features of the subject burner.
To obtain proper mixing, atomization, and stability of operation, a burner for the partial oxidation process is sized for a specific throughput. With prior-art burners, should the required output of product gas change substantially, shut-down of the system is required in order to replace the burner with one of proper size. This problem is avoided and costly shut-downs are avoided by the subject burner which will operate at varying levels of output while retaining efficiency, stability, and axial symmetry.
The more complex process for preheating a gas generator by means of a preheat burner, removing the preheat burner from the gasifier, and inserting a separate production burner is described in coassigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,445. In contrast, the subject burner may be used for both preheating and production without being removed from the gas generator.